New England Diary

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Look homeward

The Sarah Orne Jewett House, in South Berwick, Maine, shortly after her death

“What has made this nation great? Not its heroes but its households.’’

— Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909), an American novelist, short-story writer and poet, best known for her works set along or near the Maine C. She’s considered an important practitioner of American literary regionalism. Her most famous book, The Country of the Pointed Firs, seems to be based on summer stays on the St. George Peninsula, where she got to know a lot of the locals. See red map below.